


Out of Hibernation

by Ria84



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: BENFF, Banff, Ben and Rey are married, Benfrey, Canadian Reylo, Christmas Fluff, Elk confusion, F/M, HEA, Happily Ever After and then some, Hux is a park ranger, Lake Louise, Leia meddles, Out of place LOTR references, Snark, Tim Hortons, are Mounties, but not in Alberta winter, canadian rockies, captain solo, finnrose - Freeform, ford fiesta’s are cool, just because, mounties, salty language, so is phasma, the Resistance is a bar, the knights of ren, they also have a toddler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:46:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21908416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ria84/pseuds/Ria84
Summary: Two Christmases have passed since Rey and Ben found out they were parents and their small town - Canada adventures continue as they prepare to attend Rose and Finn’s wedding.
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 38
Kudos: 62





	Out of Hibernation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Semperfidani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semperfidani/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Don’t feed the bears](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14747840) by [Ria84](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ria84/pseuds/Ria84). 



> Beta by my lovely friend  
>  [Sage McMae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SageMcMae/pseuds/SageMcMae)
> 
> This is a one shot that can stand on its own if you haven’t read Don’t Feed the Bears. The locations are real - I myself live about an hour from Banff and a little further from Lake Louise.
> 
> Just a little background:  
> Wyatt, Sunny Jones and Atari Ren are my OCs. They were the Knights of Ren in the first cannon story I ever wrote. I loved them so much that I brought them with me to my Canadian AU🇨🇦  
> Wyatt is Rey’s brother and an NHL hockey player. Jones and Ren are RCMP officers — Mounties  
> Rey is also a Mountie  
> Ben is their Captain *in the RCMP there is no such rank, but captain is more sexy somehow than commissioner 🤷♀️

[ ](https://ibb.co/hcHt3Ht)

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Captain Ben Solo grumbled. Although his menacing glare, complete with bared teeth had exactly zero effect on his intended audience, he felt like it was a mental victory.

“Ben!” Rey admonished, wide eyes shifting with annoyance to the toddler feeding Cheerios to their shameless Great Dane.

“I’m sorry! I know this kid is a sponge for shitty language but seriously! Double-you-tee-eff!” He was bordering irate. Ben continued to glare in his mother’s direction, acutely aware that she was using his own child as a human shield.

“You were a hit as Santa Claus two years ago and you had fun! Remember?” Leia pestered. He had a feeling the request was coming once Hux dropped off the soiled Santa suit at The Resistance, vowing to never again owe any favours to the Solo family.

“I remember getting urinated on by a toddler.”

“Just think of how cute Annie is going to look in the pictures— baby’s first Christmas with daddy. Rey can be Mrs. Claus.” Leia sounded much too enthusiastic for his liking.

“Yeah, I’m going to pass on that Leia. Thanks.” Ben deadpanned.

“Admiral Ackbar will be there.” Rey chimed in, trying to sound serious but failing to hide her smirk.

“Oh, good. This time I can prepare for my ears to bleed,” he replied, unkindly. Ben had never forgotten the admiral’s bagpipe shenanigans, complete with an unfortunate flash of the old man’s genitals as he took a fall in his kilt.

“You know the guys and I watch the tape every once in a while, right?” Rey giggled while wiping crumbs off their daughter’s chubby little chin.

“What the hell? Why?” Ben asked, purposely ignoring his mother’s snickering.

Rey beamed, her cheeks dimpling in the irresistible way he adored— there wasn’t much he didn’t love about this woman.

“Because of,” she paused to laugh and gave Leia a conspiratorial side-glance, “your face, when he’d begun playing the pipes in the squad car. You looked like an angry Sasquatch. And no matter how bad of a day we’re having, it will never be that bad.”

“Wow. I should write you all up for insubordination. Misuse of RCMP property. Wait a minute—“ his eyes shifted between the two women. “You’ve seen it too?” he accused his mother.

She lifted her hands in mock surrender. “I need to get back to the bar. Think about it, son!” She left quickly, no longer stifling her laughter.

Rey sat on the cushioned window seat, scrutinizing him from behind thick lashes. Behind her, outside, the snow was falling in big, fluffy clumps. It landed and stuck to everything, giving the town a quiet, tranquil appearance. Ben couldn’t help reminiscing about the day he married Rey; it was an afternoon very similar to this, just a few days past Christmas.

They had just found out they were going to be parents and decided to marry each other in their own private ceremony at their favourite place— Moraine Lake. Sure, the two of them and the Justice of the Peace who married them, nearly froze to death, but the memory of Rey, smiling through glistening tears as she vowed to be his forever, would be one Ben would cherish for just as long.

“How come you’re not going the bachelor party?” Rey asked, startling him out of the temporary day dream.

“I prefer to spend my Friday night snuggled up with my two favourite ladies,” Ben lied.

“Mhmm. Bullshit.”

“It’s true. Well, partly. I don’t really want to hang out at the Resistance again, I just worked there last weekend.”

“And?”

He plopped on the banquette seat next to her, exasperated. “And Finn’s weird fucking French cousin, Hugo, keeps uttering dumbness that makes me want to crush him into a million little pieces.”

“Like what?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

“For one, he said that in his opinion, Canada is just upper America.” He used his fingers as air-quotes to emphasize his annoyance. “And then asked if we own a pet beaver.”

“That bastard!” she mocked.

“You should be more outraged.”

“To be fair, you know very little about English culture.”

“It’s called sweet breads! How the fuck was I supposed to know that’s imperial talk for mystery animal innerds?” he asked, defensively.

Rey chuckled. Ben barely held back a shiver, recalling the disaster dinner party. He didn’t have a good poker face, and even with the impressive amount of weed he’d smoked in preparation, he couldn’t help himself from sputtering all over Finn’s dinner table.

“Well, I completely understand why you’re a vegetarian. Fucking gross!”

“Such a filthy mouth you’ve got, Captain Solo,” Rey cooed.

Ben perked up immediately, reading his wife’s change of mood. “Should we put it to good use?” he asked as Rey sat on his lap, her ample bottom placed exactly where he liked it the most.

“What is Wyatt doing?” Ben caught a glimpse of his brother-in-law standing in their front yard, dressed in an ill-fitting Lord of the Rings goblin outfit (he’d recognized it because Leia had donned it for Halloween just a few months back). How the six-foot four professional hockey player had managed to fit into his mother’s costume was a riddle best left unsolved in Ben’s opinion.

“He thinks there are rabid elves attacking people in the streets of Banff. This is his way of protecting himself and Annie.” Rey chuckled, her eyes crinkled from her laugh lines.

“Sure, sure. I was scared this was related to the concussion but now it all makes sense,”  
Ben replied sarcastically. “Has anyone bothered to tell him it’s elk not elves?” Ben understood the confusion.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Rey threw her head back and chortled.

“Is that why the baby is wearing that weird outfit?’

“Yup. Uncle Wyatt brought it by this afternoon.”

“You know, this injury he’s got is bad for all of us,” Ben snarked. In truth, it had been an incredibly frightening moment watching Wyatt get slammed head-first into the boards, then lying motionless on the ice for what felt like hours.

The hockey team doctors assessed him with an upper body injury– NHL talk for concussion. He was told he was off for six weeks. To Ben, it felt like months. Wyatt was not one to stay idle and he made it his business to tackle DIY projects around the Solo home and paid particularly close attention to the health and safety of their baby.

“Honestly, I blame Phasma for this. She’s the one filling his head with utter nonsense.” Rey chuckled and stood, to Ben’s chagrin.

Phasma, who was now the chief of the park rangers, had issued a warning for the town of Banff days earlier, detailing how the elk population was unable to cross the river because of the unseasonably warm weather and were stuck in town, becoming aggressive towards tourists. Part of him was a little disappointed that he’d never been called out for this type of emergency. There was something so entertaining about watching a grown man being chased by a deer.

“Wait a minute, he’s not actually planning on wearing that to the wedding, right?” Ben pointed to Wyatt through the window. “It would be super cool if my baby wasn’t dressed like a shrub for the most important day of her uncle Finn’s life,” Ben stated as he tugged the faux leaves outfit off his baby.

“Think of the photos!” Rey grinned, then shrugged nonchalantly and fed a fresh-baked doggie treat to Stevie, their well-trained and patient Great Dane.

“Maybe I will go to the stag party after all.” Ben rubbed his chin, hoping that tonight would be the night he would get to be a first eye witness to an elk incident. More ardently, he hoped it would be his ridiculous brother-in law who would be on the receiving end of it— even after being married to Rey for two years, the big galute continued to unwittingly cockblock him at every turn.

—

“We have to go.” Ben grit through his clenched teeth for what felt like the twentieth time. “Rey is going to kill us all if we’re late,” he warned, finally garnering some attention.

The morning started off stressful; most wedding days were. However, Rose and Finn’s big day had been nothing but a massive headache for Ben.

Rey and Annie had left early, as they were required to have their hair and make up done (likely no make up for the toddler, but anything was possible since weddings turn perfectly normal people into utter psychopaths). The absence of his wife and daughter wasn’t a disaster in it of itself. The fact that she took his truck, after leaving her own vehicle at the RCMP station, leaving him short of a ride, was.

In addition, somehow Wyatt,— wearing a suit after Ben had explained to him the elk/elf misunderstanding —Ren, and Jones ended up at his house early in the morning. They tore his kitchen apart, devouring his baby’s cereal like a pack of rabid wolves.

It should have come as no surprise when Wyatt’s car ran out of gas just as they were out of the Banff townsite. But still, Ben could feel his rage bubbling as he stood next to his friends and colleagues, dressed to the nines in their formal Royal Mounted Police uniforms— Red Serge and all —freezing on the side of the Transcanada highway.

The beauty about living and working in a small town in Alberta was being able to rely on people. Unfortunately, on this particular day, everyone Ben knew was busy, already at the Lake Louise Deer House for Finn and Rose’ wedding.

Almost everyone.

“There’s Hux,” Ben announced, more exatic than ever to see the ginger irritat. Until he noticed the cherry-red Ford Fiesta rounding the corner.

“What in the actual fuck is this?” Wyatt exclaimed, seconds after spotting the pint-sized vehicle.

“This is a sensible car,” Hux remarked through the open window, visibly affronted.

One by one, constables Jones and Ren, trailed by Wyatt St.John climbed into the back seat. Crammed, more like it. Ben took the front seat although he doubted he was significantly more comfortable than the oversized men in the back.

“Not for living in the Rockies, it isn’t! Jesus Christ, I’m afraid the tires are going to blow off this bitch once it reaches the speed limit,” Ren needled. Hux’s face was taking on a shade of red Ben had seen before. He was pissed.

“And it smells like ass.”

“Oh yah, I did leave some ass back there, come to think of it. You know, you two are some ungrateful pricks.”

“Sorry, Huxie.”

“Did Maz Kanata just pass us?” Wyatt continued, and the other two laughed. Ben was too concerned about what would happen to him if he didn’t show up at the lodge in the next half hour to pay attention to them

“I’m going to leave you on the side of the road. I swear to god! I stopped for Timmy’s but I’m going to toss it out the window!”

“Don’t!” Ben exclaimed. The idea of an extra-large double-double going wasted bordered on criminal. “I promise they will behave.”

Ben rearranged himself in the tight seat, subtly cracking the passenger-side window to let some much needed fresh air inside. This car really does stink.

—

Finn was visibly nervous. His hands were shaking and his brow was covered in beads of sweat. He stood in front of the wooden archway, waiting for his bride to arrive.

“I understand why they wanted an outdoor ceremony in December. That poor boy is a sweaty wreck,” Leia whispered in Ben’s ear, then blew in her closed fists to warm herself up. It was purely a mental thing, that action hardly warmed anyone. But she was right, Finn was nervous as fuck, fidgeting and several times he’d let out a nervous titter, prompting his best “man” to gently squeeze his hand.

“Doesn’t she look just darling?” his mother gushed and unlike the majority of the time, Ben had to agree. Finn had chosen Rey as his best man and she played the part perfectly— black pantsuit with a crisp white dress shirt, complete with a red tie that matched her lipstick. In spite of his attempts at civility, the silk tie provided Ben an infinite amount of ideas on how to put it to good use later.

“Have you thought about the Christmas Parade?” His mother’s incessant needling sobered Ben and redirected his thoughts away from his wife’s trim form.

“If I do this, you need to do something for me,” he stipulated, garnering his mother’s undivided attention.

“I’m listening.”

“The Ackbar recording— I want it.”

“Done,” Leia agreed with a smirk.

“You’re a lucky guy, Cap!” Sunny leaned into the space between Ben and his mother.

“Don’t I know it,” Ben whispered, admiring his wife’s singular beauty, once again.

He was not one for big weddings and was thankful that Rey had been on the same page when it came to their own elopement. Even so, standing back and admiring the setting, he could understand why some people opted for the more formal approach.

Finn and Rose had chosen to have their ceremony outdoors, lakeside and their reception in the lodge. While they were less than two hours away from Calgary, being nestled between the Rockies acted like a barrier from civilization. Unlike Banff, Lake Louise was wild, barely disturbed by modernization and tourist traffic. They still came, but not as many as in town.

Blue Spruce and Douglas-fir grew undisturbed, acting like a fortress blanketed in fresh snow around the festivities. Tasteful twinkle lights and frosty candle-lit lanterns lined the isle and the wooden archway. The entire setup had an air of easy celebration about it.

Poe Dameron— the officiant Rose and Finn chose —walked out and embraced the groom warmly. He instructed the congregation on the festivities they were all about the witness, and without much further ado, the processional music began.

Paige Tico carried Annie Solo in her arms and the entire group cooed. The baby looked like she had floated out of a Botticelli painting, her chubby cheeks rosy and dimpled. Ben was not afraid to admit to anyone how obsessed he’d been with his daughter since the day he found out about her existence.

Everyone stood as the melody changed, facing Rose at the end of the candle lit isle. The petite brunette was backlit by the wintry sunset, the pale pink soft clouds and light flurries giving her an ethereal appearance. She walked slowly to Finn, who was no longer able to hold back his tears.

“Rose and Finn have written their own vows. I now invite you to listen and bear witness.”

Finn cleared his throat and began. “Rose, you are my love and the joy in my life. When you smile, I honestly can’t believe that you’re mine. Every day is Christmas with you by my side— loving you for all my life is my gift.”

“Finn, I have to admit, I didn’t like you when we first met.” A chorus of laughter echoed through the frosty twilight. “But I was wrong— last time you’ll hear me say that —you are an amazing man. You teach me new things every day and my life has been a continuous adventure with you by my side. I love everything about you and I can’t believe that you’re mine.”

Even a self-proclaimed surly bastard like Ben Solo couldn’t prevent a few tears brimming in his eyes. Although they were outside, the love radiating from the couple exchanging vows kept everyone warm.

“If anyone has just cause to stop these two beauties from tying the knot, speak now or forever hold your peace,” Poe declared, fulfilling his officiant duties, with sufficient personalization to fit his general exuberance.

“Fuck,” a high pitched baby voice chimed, bringing the ceremony to a screeching halt as Leia barked out an obnoxious howl of laugher. If the scowl on her face was any indication, Rey was significantly less amused.

“Baby’s first word! My baby’s first word is fuck,” Ben whispered as soon as the music played once more and the newlyweds proceeded inside the lodge.

Leia laughed without holding back this time. “Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Benjamin. Yours was asshole. That baby is a Solo through and through! Now relax, it’s Christmas Eve!” She patted him on the arm and followed the rest of the guests inside.

Rey linked her arm through his, huddling close for warmth. “Are you mad at me?” she asked sweetly.

“What? Why?” he questioned, perplexed.

“Because! I’m the one who's always bloody swearing around her, and now this will be her first word memory for ever!” she lamented.

Ben laughed, relief coursing through him. “Oh, sweetheart, I thought you were mad at me. For the same reason— being a shit parent. Why don’t we just call it a draw and go have a drink, celebrate our friends>”

“Sounds good, Captain Solo,” she purred, her lithe fingers grazing the top of his butt.

“How about we stay for a drink or two, we leave Annie with her grandma, and I tell you all about what we’re going to do with that tie of yours, rook?” Ben whispered in her ear as he guided her inside the lodge, his standard issued RCMP trousers suddenly too tight.

“Merry Christmas, husband,” she turned and kissed him sweetly.

Ever since the day Rey had walked up to his station in Banff, all long legs and beaming smiles, his life had taken a turn for the better. Rey was his wife, his baby’s mommy, his partner in crime (prevention), and his favourite Christmas gift that he got to unwrap every year. Ben vowed that he would never stop appreciating her, never take her for granted, never let a day go by when he didn’t let her know how much she meant to him.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into their Banff HEA! I know there are mixed feelings about the TROS but one thing that we can all get on the same page about is how wonderful this fandom is. Even when things don’t go the way we think, we find ways to be positive and support each other. 🖤  
> If rose and Finn’s speech sounds kind of familiar and Christmasy, you are right! Some of the lines are from a Sia Christmas song 🎄❤️
> 
> Just to clarify, I love my English friends and their cuisine; Canadian Ben Solo does not. I also thought sweetbreads was a desert but I liked it! 
> 
> Someone actually said to me that “Canada is upper America” — it’s not. Canada, surprisingly enough, is a totally independent sovereign country 🤷♀️
> 
> The elk - that’s a real story that was reported in November and it was a real issue in Banff because they were attacking people in town.
> 
> [Banff & Lake Louise](https://www.banfflakelouise.com/)
> 
> [The Deer Lodge at Lake Louise](https://crmr.com/deer/)
> 
> Dani thank you so much for organizing this event! It’s been a pleasure to see all the talented people posting their work and an honour to be included in this collection🖤  
> On a personal note, a few weeks ago I found out that my most ardent Christmas wish has come true - I’m expecting a little baby of my very own come summer 2020 👼 and I just had to share ❤️  
> Merry Christmas!!!!!


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